FREEHOLD – Three family members were sentenced Friday to probation for their roles in the disposal of the bones of a 9-year-old girl in a county park in Upper Freehold in 2005 after they had set the child’s body on fire in an effort to prevent authorities from identifying her remains. She had died after years of abuse and neglect, authorities said.

No one has been charged with the little girl’s murder. But Monmouth County brought charges in connection with the unlawful disposal of the body of Jon-Neice Jones, who authorities say died in New York several years before, according to acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni. The case captured the nation’s attention when in 2009 it was featured on “America’s Most Wanted.”

But police work, not TV, brought an end to what has been called the “Baby Bones” case.

A joint homicide investigation began after a partially buried skull and jaw bone were discovered by a hunter near County Road 526 in Clayton Park in Upper Freehold in March 2005. The joint investigation by the county prosecutor’s office and state police identified the bones through DNA testing and were linked to Jones, a Harlem resident who had been born Sept. 5, 1992.

Over the next several years, law enforcement officers continued their investigation, concluding that Jon-Niece died on Aug. 15, 2002, at the age of 9 while at the Harlem home of her aunt, Aunt Likisha Jones. Her death followed years of abuse and neglect by the child’s mother, Elisha Jones, authorities said.

Detectives discovered Elisha Jones and Jon-Niece’s uncle, James Jones, and Likisha Jones’s boyfriend, Godfrey Gibson, disposed of the girl’s body in Upper Freehold after lighting it on fire. Elisha Jones died four months later in December 2002.

The child’s death still is being reviewed by the New York County District Attorney’s Office.

In Monmouth County, charges were brought against those who disposed of the bones.

Monmouth County Superior Court Judge John T. Mullaney sentenced Godfrey Gibson, 49, of Manhattan, to 364 days in the Monmouth County Jail and to probation after he is released.

Mullaney, sitting in Freehold, also sentenced the child’s aunt Likisha Jones, 39, of Manhattan, and the child’s uncle James Jones, 36, of Brooklyn, to probation for two years. The trio pleaded guilty in December.